Indiana to re-think time zones, daylight savings participation.

Byline: Tim Jones

STATE LINE CITY, Ind. _ To its everlasting credit, the state of Indiana has brought the world steel, prescription drugs, sweet corn, the Indy 500, RVs and Cole Porter.

But it still has not, after almost 190 years of statehood, figured out exactly what time it is.

That could soon change. And then, maybe it won't because this is, after all, Indiana.

The state's peculiar, long-running civil war over where to place the hands of the clock has erupted again in the state Legislature, which triggered this great battle over time more than a half-century ago.

Daylight Saving Time _ for it or against it _ is Indiana's magnificent obsession, resulting in regional duchies of fast-time obedience and Central time devotion scattered about the largely Eastern time zone state and ongoing confusion over questions like this: When it's 8 a.m. in Chester, is it 8 a.m. in Chesterville? (Yes, except for the nearly seven months that it's 9 a.m. in Chesterville.)

Theoretically, this could all be tidied up in fairly short order if the state's elected representatives endorse a bill that says all 92 counties will change their clocks every April and October, just as every other state in the continental United States _ save for Arizona _ does …